Category: China

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Bill Porter interview

A February 2019 interview of Bill Porter, author of Road to Heaven: Encounters With Chinese Hermits, in Emergence Magazine. The interview is titled “Lone Moon Lights Cold Spring,” with the byline: “In this in-depth interview, Bill Porter, famously known as the translator Red Pine, reflects on his encounters with Chinese hermits and his long history with the great Taoist and Buddhist poets of China.” Among the range of China topics, Porter discusses his favorite hermits Cold Mountain and Stonehouse. Available as audio or transcript.

URL: https://emergencemagazine.org/story/lone-moon-lights-cold-spring/

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Hong Kong “hikikomori”

South China Morning Post reports on the hikikomori phenomena in Hong Kong in an article titled “Hong Kong’s hidden youth: societal pressure driving city’s young into apathy and reclusiveness” and bylines: “Hikikomori trend is widely known in Japan, but receives little attention here, where up to 2 per cent of the population may be withdrawn.
Confucian societies are seen as more susceptible because of parental pressure and peer expectations.”

URL: https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3009450/hong-kongs-hidden-youth-societal-pressure-driving; https://www.asiaone.com/asia/hong-kongs-hidden-youth-why-citys-young-are-becoming-recluses

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Hermit culture in China today

China-based news source Sixth Tone features and article, with video, titled “The Hermit Culture Living On in China’s Misty Mountains” with byline “Disillusioned recluses have come to the Zhongnan Mountains for centuries. Now, a government campaign threatens their way of life.” From the website:

In the past decade, thousands of young people like Zhang have come to the Zhongnan Mountains hoping to connect with around 600 modern-day hermits, or yinshi, according to estimates by Zhongnan Cottage, a local civic organization. Hermitic lifestyles have a long history in China: During the dynastic era, the term was applied to educated, conscientious men who fled from the social expectation to join what they perceived as a corrupt, immoral government and eked out poor lives in remote rural China. Occasionally, emperors rewarded hermits with high-ranking government positions, believing them to possess deeper wisdom than conventional officials.

URL: http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1003932/the-hermit-culture-living-on-in-chinas-misty-mountains; https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-05-11/the-hermit-culture-living-on-in-chinas-misty-mountains-101414004.html

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Chinese wilderness couple

XinhuaNet features a story on a wilderness couple devoting their lives as caretakers of an ancient and neglected forestland in China. “For about two decades, Luo Yuxiong and her husband Zhao Jinshan have led a life of solitude in the barren land in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.” Details their decades-long environmental work to restore forest to a once-ravaged area.

URL: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-11/26/c_137632453.htm

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Bill Porter update

Update on Bill Porter — translator of Chinese and Buddhist classics and China traveler, and author of Road to Heaven: Encounters With Chinese Hermits — in China.org.cn, titled “Drawn in the beauty of solitude – a life inspired by Chinese poetry.” Porter’s most recent visit to China centered around his latest book, Paradise of the Mind, on ancient poet Tao Yuanming or Tao Chien. The article reviews Porter’s travels and reflections, concluding:

Considering his age, Porter [he is 75] has decided to settle down and stop his wanderings. Together with some friends, he is preparing to open a meditation center in Seattle.

“The best things in life are things that can make the world stop,” he says. “I found it in Chinese culture, and I would like to share that.”

URL: http://www.china.org.cn/arts/2018-05/25/content_51518212.htm